Identity Crisis
Identity Crisis is the thirteenth episode in season two of . Synopsis Paul Millander returns, leaving another staged suicide. Upon finding a clue that connects all the victims, Grissom and Catherine end up in a court room, where the judge bears an uncanny resemblance to Millander. Further investigation reveals a startling secret about Millander's past. Plot On a dark, rainy night a man drives past a hitchhiker in a long black coat with a hood, holding a sign that says 'Vegas'. After a moment he drives back and picks up the man, asking where he's headed. The man replies 'Its not where I'm headed'. Grissom and Catherine drive to the scene, way out of their jurisdiction because Grissom's name is on the tape recording left next to the body of Paul Walker, which is in a bathtub in an empty warehouse. The MO is clearly that of Paul Millander. Grissom remarks how the victims birthdays are in descending order- 1958, 1957 etc. In the tape Millander says 'Happy Birthday Mr Grissom' and Catherine is horrified to discover Grissoms birthday is August 17th 1956- the birth date of the next victim Millander would be looking for. Grissom claims it is a coincidence but when Nick says Millander can't outsmart all of them, Grissom remarks that he can. Sara and Warrick photograph footprints while Catherine finds a long dark hair in the tub. Sound from the recording suggests Millander was driving the car however Brass finds the Vegas sign showing Millander was hitchhiking. Warrick wonders how Millander would know the man who picked him up had the right birthdate. Half the victims face is bruised and black from gunpowder burns, which Grissom realises mirrors the 'Good vs Evil' Mask Millander showed him in Anonymous. Grissom thinks the hair is Millander's but it comes back as a woman's. However it is an aged hair, which seems to have been 'nurtured' by Millander. Nick narrows down the time of death and they find out Paul Walker was incapacitated in the car and carried in the warehouse to be killed. They find out all three victims had been given driving tickets by the same police officer. The officer says he sometimes goes to court dates and Grissom and Catherine realise it may be the judge who is the same at all 3 cases. They go to court and are shocked to see that Judge Douglas Mason is Paul Millander. Grissom attempts to get Millander arrested but he has him put in jail for contempt of court. He then talks to Grissom and suggests the doppelganger syndrome for why people believe he is Paul Millander, before inviting Grissom to dinner with his wife. Catherine gets a Mason/Millander fingerprint from the jail bars while Grissom goes to dinner and meets Judge Mason's wife and son. The fingerprints come back as Judge Mason, but Grissom refuses to let go, especially as Mason's birth certificate has been supposedly lost in a fire. They visit Isabelle, Paul's mother, and later find out that Paul Millander was born a girl, Pauline and had a sex change, so his mother refused to have anything to do with her/him again. He has also been planting his late father's prints at the crime scenes. Millander admits all this to Grissom, saying he is 'comfortable' with it. He insists on taking his own cheek swab and asks if Grissom is wondering why he didn't kill him and says he has chosen his next victim. Grissom says he doesn't care as by then Millander will be in jail, and then he heads for court as Millander smiles. At court, Millander is representing himself, but doesn't show up so Grissom goes looking for him. He has escaped using a fake ID that says he is Gil Grissom. Catherine comments on how each victim had to read a suicide note and say they were sorry to their mother, and says Millander must have slipped up as Paul Walker had no mother (she had died in childbirth). Grissom is stunned and runs off, saying that Millander 'never slips up'. He goes to Isabelle Millander's house, armed with his gun. There he finds Isabelle sitting at the dining table, having been stabbed by her son. Grissom then finds Millander in the bathtub, having killed himself in the exact way he murdered his victims, with a tape recording saying he is sorry to his mother and his birth certificate, which shows he was born on the same date as Grissom. Grissom flinches as the gun goes off in the tape recording. Cast Main Cast *William Petersen as Gil Grissom *Marg Helgenberger as Catherine Willows *Gary Dourdan as Warrick Brown *George Eads as Nick Stokes *Jorja Fox as Sara Sidle *Paul Guilfoyle as Jim Brass Guest Cast *Eric Szmanda as Greg Sanders *Robert David Hall as Dr. Al Robbins *Matt O'Toole as Paul Millander / Judge Douglas Mason. *Archie Kao as Archie Johnson *Micole Mercurio as Isabelle Millander *Neil Flynn as Officer Kevin Yarnell *Cheryl White as Mrs. Mason *Steve Witting as Peter Walker *Rob Roy Fitzgerald as Detective Champlain *Jason Ross-Azikiwe as Court Police Officer *Devon Alan as Craig Mason *Steven M. Gagnon as Bailiff *Ryan James as Young Paul *Frank Novak as Clark County Judge Major Events *This is the third and final appearance of Matt O'Toole as Paul Millander. He previously appeared in Pilot and Anonymous, from season one. Goofs *In Paul Millander's suicide note at the end of the episode, he states that he is 46 years old. The show also mentions in previous episodes that Millander was 10 when he saw his father killed on August 17, 1959. This would mean that this episode takes place in the mid 1990s. But since the show is set around the same date that it airs, this is wrong. * When one of the CSis was reading an article, in a previous episode, about the supposed suicide of his father, it mentioned Milander as a male and not as a female. Notes *Gil Grissom's share the same birthday with Paul Millander as they were born in August 17, 1956. *Paul Millander was born as Pauline Millander, but had a sex change. Trivia *Craig Mason is portrayed in this episode by Devon Alan, later, in season tenth, is played by a different actor with the same first name: Devon (Devon Graye). See Also 213 Category:Episodes